Bruce Nuclear Waste Repository: The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time – Part I

August 22, 2014 — David Jackson

As the second round of public hearings approaches the Panel examining the OPG proposal to establish a Deep Geological Repository to bury nuclear waste at the Bruce reactor site has become even more mired in an avalanche of crap. I won’t give into my inclination to compare the Panel to the inimitable Three Stooges but one of their lines (from the 1941 movie Time Out for Rhythm) is appropriate:

“Stupidity!? We’re technical experts!”

As I noted in my November 11, 2013 post on this issue

“psychological intimidation and harassment of hearing witnesses by the police was appalling… the Panel did a poor job of preserving the integrity of the process … I feel the hearings were badly flawed and the Panel’s conclusions should be considered as tainted.”

If that wasn’t bad enough I also pointed out OPG’s unilateral and previously unannounced intention to put long-lived decommissioning and refurbishment wastes in the DGR in addition to the relatively short lived operational wastes from reactor stations.

A lot has happened since the last round of hearings.

My previous post concerning the Federal Court decision on the bungling of the Environment Assessment for new reactor construction at Darlington argued that this ruling had focused a higher degree of legal scrutiny on CNSC decisions. I suppose that an on-going process at this and other such hearings in the future will be looking for what lawyers call “grounds for appeal” Again I repeat my regret that there is a legally amateur Panel rather than an experienced judge in charge of the hearings. I think it’s a safe bet that if the Panel approves the DGR then there will be an appeal to the Federal Court of Canada.

Another relevant but unrelated recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada on First Nations land claims may also impact the hearings. These claims span a large complex of issues in Canada and I don’t pretend to understand the decision. However, my interpretation is that it refers to aboriginal groups whose land claims have not yet been settled (“un-extinguished” in legal jargon). The Court held that bands in this position are entitled to be involved in and profit from the economic development of the claimed areas, even lands where nomadic tribes used to hunt and fish without necessarily establishing permanent settlements. The Saugeen Ojibwa Nation (SON), the main band taking part in the DGR hearings, claims the Bruce nuclear site as traditional hunting and fishing grounds. I don’t know the status of SON land claims but I would think the Supreme Court decision will strengthen their already very strong position at the hearings.

The DGR has raised substantial protests from Great Lakes communities and from the state of Michigan in particular. The two US senators from Michigan are opposed and interestingly enough it is reported the state has a law that forbids nuclear waste storage within ten miles of the Great Lakes. The international embarrassment the DGR has caused could be turned into a positive. The Panel report has to be submitted to the federal government for a final decision on approval. Perhaps, cancelling of the DGR plan could be made a bargaining chip in getting US approval for the Keystone XL pipeline that Prime Minister Harper is pushing so hard. Cancellation might put two US Senators side for Keystone.

As I noted before, the DGR scheme is being pushed by local politicians from communities around the Bruce site. As a result of secret meetings with OPG that began in 2005 five local Bruce area municipalities agreed to support the DGR for a total payoff of $35 million between them to be paid over 30 years. However, no evidence has come to light that individual politicians received personal pay offs. Under the deal the local municipalities apparently won’t get the money if the DGR is not approved – a clear incentive for them to keep pushing it. An independent investigation released last week showed that the municipal councils negotiated the deal in secret meetings with OPG that initially had no minutes and about which their citizens didn’t know. Voters only found out about this deal at the DGR hearings last year. The investigator concluded that this under-the-table proceeding was in clear violation of the Ontario Municipal Act. The gravity of this revelation is stressed in the Sun Times of nearby Owen Sound editorial of August 16.

“It was and remains a disgrace that a publicly owned corporation should effectively buy the influence of elected representatives and a disgrace that those municipalities allowed themselves to be bought off and still do to this day. “

If OPG management were smart, they would realize that these hearings are a continuing public relations disaster and they should use one of many possible excuses to gracefully withdraw the proposal. They could then wait ten, fifty or even a hundred years to try again with no real harm to their corporate objectives. But in the last few years no one has accused OPG management of being smart.

The above has covered some non-technical developments since November 2013. I intend to discuss technical issues in the next post.